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Date : 09/09/2003
Source: Ministry of Sport and Recreation
Title: Balfour: Parliamentary Media Briefing, September 2003


STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION, MR BMN BALFOUR, MP, DURING THE GCIS PARLIAMENTARY MEDIA BRIEFING, 9 September 2003

TURNING THE TIDE IN SPORT AND RECREATION

I wish to welcome you to this parliamentary briefing dealing with sport and recreation.

I have invited the CEO of the SA 2010 Bid, Mr Danny Jordaan, to join me here this afternoon to give you some insight into the benefits of hosting this prestigious event in South Africa in 2010. At the same time, I have also received the final report of the 2003 Cricket World Cup as well as an economic impact report commissioned by my Department, which is extremely positive with regard to our ability to host such major international sports events. I will make this report available to the public at another opportunity.

Having said that, both sport and the public have been occupied with events in recent days that go to the very heart of South African society. I will address this including other issues that are impacting on the South African sports scene.

Let me deal with the issue of allegations of racism and prejudice within the Springbok rugby camp. Any South African who believes that racism and prejudice would have disappeared within South African sport as a result of 10 years of unity, obviously has a very poor understanding of society, especially one such as ours, where racism and prejudice dominated the lives of the majority of our people.

The matter of alleged racism within the Springbok camp first came to my attention on Wednesday, 27 August, when my office was advised by the Springbok manager of the alleged incident. Subsequent to that, I was also briefed by the MD, Rian Oberholzer, and his deputy Songezo Nayo on the matter. My advice to them was very simple. If the allegations have any foundation, act on it decisively and immediately. The decision of Sarfu to remove Geo Cronje from the camp pending an investigation into the matter was conveyed to me. On Friday, 29 August I met the deputy MD in Cape Town where we discussed the findings of the initial inquiry that Sarfu instituted. The subsequent allegations made by the former Springbok communications manager forced SA Rugby and Sarfu to revisit this matter.

Now, it can be argued that the timing of Sarfu on the matter and the manner in which it was dealt with, were not appropriate. But what is really at stake here? Is it cases of alleged racism, is it the response of rugby to it or is it a much deeper malaise that we are faced with? Is it not the success or otherwise of the implementation of transformation that is being placed under the spotlight?

We take it for granted that young men and women who have grown up in a certain milieu are able to deal with issues of diversity when they find themselves in a team set-up with people with whom they have never had any contact with in the past. Are we really addressing the cardinal issue of preparing our sportspeople to deal with issues of diversity, tolerance and respect for each other?

It is now necessary for us to give the inquiry under way the opportunity to unravel issues that have dominated the public arena in recent days. Parallel to this is the need for us to recognise that sport is no different to the rest of society and that if we want to arrest, limit and ultimately eliminate prejudices, we need to put in place programmes and systems to address such issues. Without wanting to pre-empt any possible findings of the inquiry, we must continue working to promote a transformed sports environment. I have also been engaged in discussions with various stakeholders in rugby to ensure that preparations for the upcoming Rugby World Cup remain on track. Of course, this raises the question of whether the World Cup is more important than other considerations.

No, it is not, but there is no doubt in my mind, no matter the outcome of the inquiry, South Africa must be represented at the 2003 World Cup. At the same time, there must be absolutely no cover-up with regard to the allegations made and the responsibility will remain with Sarfu to ensure that the truth comes to the fore. If there are to be casualties as a result of this, so be it.

This incident brings quite sharply into focus the need and desirability for the pace of the transformation of sport to be accelerated. Whilst we have had allegations at this high level, my visits to seven provinces over the last few months have revealed that we still have a long way to go and that dissatisfaction with the lack of transformation is most deeply felt at club and provincial levels. In November this year we will be making public a transformation charter that has been derived from provincial Imbizos that were held on transformation. This charter will guide our future actions on transformation, and if need be, will also provide for sanctions against those who go contrary to transformation principles contained in the charter.

Another issue that has been putting administrators in the public eye at the expense of our athletes is the dispute within Nocsa. I want to say that there are no untouchables in SA sport. If there are people who believe that they can use SA sport to serve their personal interests, they would realise soon enough that matters are always likely to come full circle. The suspension of two Nocsa executive members for allegedly bringing the organisation into disrepute has been dragging on for far too long. It has also contributed to a dispute between Nocsa and one of its major affiliates, Athletics South Africa (ASA). I have made it clear to both structures that I find their public conduct on the matter unacceptable. I met with both organisations on 9 August, following a series of earlier interventions. Both organisations were given the opportunity to outline their respective positions and they have given me their commitment to resolve this matter in the best interests of our athletes. In the next few days, I will be meeting with both Nocsa and ASA to bring this matter to finality.

A new structure for karate has now been put in place after much division within the sport. We will be sending a team to the All Africa Games in October with a new controlling committee in place, chaired by Cass Sehloho.

A professional league in basketball will also be revived later this year whilst other codes such as lifesaving has now been fully unified and a transformation monitoring committee is in place to ensure progress in this regard.

Our netball team did quite well at the recent World Championships in Jamaica. Sponsors are beginning to notice this and are coming forward to assist our second most popular sport in the country.

Hockey is showing promising signs as evidenced by their world ranking, whilst tennis staged successful Davis and Federation Cup ties in Durban.

Our athletics team returned from the World Athletics Championships in Paris with the most successful medal haul ever, including two gold, one silver and one bronze. Jacques Freitag and Hestrie Cloete again proved that they are the best in the world in high jump, while Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and Okkert Brits added to our glory.

Our teams are now preparing themselves for the 8th All Africa Games in Abuja, Nigeria, in October, where we intend defending our title as the champions of Africa. This will be followed by the Zone VI Games planned for Mozambique in April next year, followed by our participation in the Olympic Games in Athens.

Our under 12 soccer team have just returned home as the world champions. The Tsetse Flies, as they are known, really stung in France with captain Kamohelo Mokotjo and young Siboniso Ngcobo leading the way. Our cricket team returns home after a good tour of England despite failing to take the test series. Captain Graeme Smith has expressed the need for our team to be more ruthless in their approach and we might just see this as they now start focusing on the upcoming tour of Pakistan.

In November this year, President Mbeki will officiate as honorary chairperson at the President's Cup, a golf event between a team from the US and an international team, at Fancourt Golf Estate. The President will also receive the first copy of our 2010 Soccer World Cup Bid Book later this month, before a South African delegation departs for Zurich to hand over our Bid Book to FIFA.

The first national Indigenous Games Festival was held in Polokwane, Limpopo Province, this past weekend, with all nine provinces sending teams to participate. This bodes well for the future of indigenous games.

We are currently preparing for the second South African Games that will be held in Buffalo City in April 2004 and will constitute a major part of sport's tenth anniversary celebrations of our democracy.

My Department is currently finalising the first draft of the Safety at Sports Stadiums Bill. This Bill seeks to ensure that sports events taking place at stadiums all over the country are safe, organised and secure. The Bill also seeks to ensure that stadiums are secure and comply with the highest safety standards possible. It is envisaged that the Bill will go through the Cabinet and parliamentary processes early next year.

Much has been said about the report of the Ministerial Task Team on High Performance Sport that investigated the restructuring of SA sport and that recommended the establishment of a fully fledged government department and a confederation of sport governing bodies. In addition to these structural changes, the establishment of a national academy, as recommended by the task team, has been approved by Cabinet, and we are currently engaged in discussions with the relevant stakeholders.

We will shortly be establishing a regional office for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for Africa in Cape Town. The office will play a major role in Africa in combating the scourge of doping that is threatening to undermine the very basis of fair play in sport.

Our highly successful Building for Sport and Recreation programme comes to an end in March 2004. This year alone R129 million was invested in the project on building or upgrading 114 facilities in disadvantaged communities. In the last two years 142 facilities were completed. There is still a huge backlog in terms of facility provision to disadvantaged communities. The project will in future be pursued through the Municipal Infrastructure Development programme in the Department of Provincial and Local Government while Sport and Recreation will continue to provide a policy development and oversight role in the project and ensure that programmes are implemented at the sites.

Finally, the 2010 Soccer World Cup Bid Committee has commissioned an economic impact study that looks very promising in terms of the potential benefits of hosting the event in South Africa.

They predict that 2, 72 million tickets will be sold generating revenue to the tune of R4, 6 billion.

Capital expenditure on the upgrades of stadium and other infrastructure will amount to R2, 3 billion and the event will lead to direct expenditure of R12, 7 billion while contributing R21, 3 billion to the country's GDP. 159 000 new employment opportunities will be created and R7, 2 billion will be paid to government in taxes.

It is clear that staging the Soccer World Cup in South Africa in 2010 will create significant direct and indirect economic benefits for the country's economy.

This strengthens my Department's case for adopting a long-term major events hosting strategy that I will be putting to Cabinet for adoption. Danny is with me to respond to questions that you might wish to raise on the bid.

I thank you.

Enquiries: Graham Abrahams at 082 453 2244
Issued by Ministry of Sport and Recreation
9 September 2003

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